Saturday, March 21, 2009

Welcome Spring!

Well spring may be here but although it was quite warm during the week the week end arrived and it is cold and rain is predicted. In spite of that I am working on my spring projects since this has to pass...right?

I am still working on my NoroTaiyo 3/4 coat. I did what i always do and frogged parts of it as I experimented with my ideas for knitting. The coat, a pattern from Knit One Crochet Too was knit in a similar type yarn with colors that change but it was a wool yarn. For one thing I find wool much too warm most of the time and for another often too scratchy for me as I usually have bare arms under a sweater so I opted for NoroTaiyo which is a combination of cotton and silk. As I knit along I realized that for a good fit for me I needed to make the coat a bit more narrow and I also decided to insert solid black yarn for the short rows and picked the black Maldive yarn from The Queensland collection which has tiny flecks of color and there fore blended in nicely. I finally finished the back after all the ripping and re-knitting and started on the front. I think I am quite pleased with it now.

Needing a smaller project to carry with me (I never leave home without knitting) I started the cutest baby sweater. It is my own version of a pattern from a very old knitter's magazine. I found the picture in a pile of things that i saved, but can't find the instructions so I am writing my own as I go along. I am knitting this in Debbie Bliss Pure cotton. I am in love. The yarn is the softest that I have ever worked with. I just love holding in in my hands. I will be taking some pictures and posting them soon. Once I get the pattern written I will be offering it free along with the purchase of yarn for the project.